The Tao Te Ching: Verse Twenty

Cease learning, no more worries
Respectful response and scornful response
How much is the difference?
Goodness and evil
How much do they differ?
What the people fear, I cannot be unafraid

So desolate! How limitless it is!
The people are excited
As if enjoying a great feast
As if climbing up to the terrace in spring
I alone am quiet and uninvolved
Like an infant not yet smiling
So weary, like having no place to return
The people all have surplus
While I alone seem lacking
I have the heart of a fool indeed – so ignorant!
Ordinary people are bright
I alone am muddled
Ordinary people are scrutinizing
I alone am obtuse
Such tranquility, like the ocean
Such high wind, as if without limits

The people all have goals
And I alone am stubborn and lowly
I alone am different from them
And value the nourishing mother

Lao Tzu

The Divine Feminine is a goddess common to most religious and spiritual traditions. It is thought that the original concept represents primal Mother Earth and symbolizes balance, healing, renewal and restoration.The Tao is called the Great Mother (Verse Six). The reason that it is called the Great Mother is to communicate the Tao’s all-embracing nature of receptivity and flow.

The Divine Feminine, Mother Earth and Great Mother references are not intended to be confused with Yin (feminine) energy or Yang (masculine) energy. The Tao is a concept that expands far beyond the dualistic nature of masculine and feminine. It is the unimaginable, non-dualistic oneness of everything and everyone in the Universe. It embraces everyone and everything. It does not polarize; it unifies.

The promise held within the Tao is a Path, or a Way to harmonizing your dualistic nature and the energies of Yin/Yang. The message contained with this verse of the Tao is to work to harmonize our inner world of mind and spirit with the outer world of our daily actions and interactions (life). Try to balance and harmonize your thinking self with your feeling self. Adopt a daily spiritual practice that will ultimately create a balance of inner strength and outer will, determination, or ambition.

The Great Mother (The Oneness) is always with us. It is only when you choose to judge and assign a dualistic label to people and things that you turn your back on it. You step away from the sense of harmony and flow and you feel separate and alone. This is not to say you should sit around and do nothing but rather; accept that an academic degree(s), a powerful corporate title, or your place in the world’s pecking order does not hold a guarantee of joy and contentment.

Live a conventional life or walk the road less traveled. However, while you are developing your knowledge base and pursuing worldly success; do not neglect the development of your emotional intelligence and spirit. Live mindfully and let each moment reaffirm that you have already arrived.

“Human beings are of such nature that they should have not only material facilities but spiritual sustenance as well. Without spiritual sustenance, it is difficult to get and maintain peace of mind.”